Page 108 of The Consequences of Love and Vengeance

“D, why don’t you take a walk? Take a breather.” I glance up at my dad. “You, too. I’d like to speak to Mike alone.”

Drago slides his fingers through mine, lacing them and squeezes. I turn my head back up to see the determination on this face.

“Bri, if you think I’m walking out of this room on my own accord after the bomb that doctor dropped, then you don’t know me as well as I thought you did. The only way I’m leaving your side is if I’m physically forced out.”

“That very well may be a possibility, Mr. Acerbi.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Achill runs down my spine. My eyes snap toward the door, seeing Deputy Chief Thomas Ramirez standing there, eyes locked with the man I shouldn’t be holding hands with.

Drago tenses, his hand gripping mine a little too tight, but I try not to retract. Instead, I squeeze him back, not sure if I’m offering him support or trying to steal it for myself.

I knew this could happen. I knew I was risking my career. No one can say I wasn’t. Those thoughts have plagued me since I woke up in his bed the morning after our first time together.

Seven weeks...

My thoughts go back to what the doctor told me. I was seven weeks along. It’s been eight weeks since Gabriel has—had been placed in my care. I marked the calendar on my desk just a couple of days ago with a heart. I’m not even sure when I started doing it. I think it was when I stopped trying to reach Tom’s contact for witness protection—when I should have pushed my boss on the fact that I still had him. It’s my fault he’s gone. It’s my fault an innocent baby was taken.

If I’d gotten through or found another way to contact Captain Williams, then Gabe would be safe. I was a fool to think I was the better person to take care of Drago’s son.

I don’t know one thing about babies. I couldn’t even carry one to term.

No!

I won’t chastise myself now. I won’t think about him or her—it. I can’t. I’ll break and right now that is the last thing I can allow myself to do.

Not here, I tell myself for the hundredth time.

“Mr. Acerbi.” Tom walks over the threshold. “Care to tell me why one of my detectives was shot by an associate of yours?”

“Unless you have a warrant, I have nothing to say to you,” Drago informs him, his voice taking on a lethal tone I’ve never heard from him. It’s eerily how he can flip and it comes out so naturally.

“That could be arranged.” Tom stops a foot from Mike. “But if you’re innocent like Andrews keeps trying to persuade me to believe, then I’d think you would want to clear your name. After all, you’re the only suspect I currently have that would have a reason to hurt my detective and kidnap that child?”

“What the fuck kind of bullshit are you trying to stretch these days, Ramirez? I’m the last person that would hurt Bri.”

“Yet the first person that has a motive to take the boy.”

“Tom,” I say through gritted teeth.

Drago shakes his head, clearly not understanding my boss’s underhanded allegation. “Why is—”

“Oh.” The chief cuts him off, looking right at me, wearing a smirk. “I figured with your up close and personal relationship with my detective, she must have told you how the boy plays into the investigation.”

“What boy?” my father asks. I cut my eyes over to my dad, but I don’t answer. This isn’t the time or place. Tom knows that, so why is he acting like this, divulging things...

“Ramirez,” Mike says, almost coming out like a warning. Mike’s body is tense, rigid as he continues to stand at the foot of my bed, eyeing me with disappointment and pity.

It pisses me off. I don’t want anyone’s pity; disappointment I can take and maybe it’s even deserved. But pity? He can take that shit and shove it up his ass.

Having enough of Mike’s stare, I scan the room until my eyes land on Tom. He raises an eyebrow, directing it at the more senior detective in the room, but Mike doesn’t seem to give a damn what our boss thinks of his tone.

“Chief...” I take a deep breath, shaking my head. “This isn’t the time or place for that. We should be focused on finding Sebastian Diaz, not accusing Drago of something he wasn’t a part of.”

“And you know he wasn’t how?”

My jaw locks. The sound of Houston’s voice brings out the rage that’s been sitting just under the surface of my skin.

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